No interview was planned after the concert, at least for the mass media, but indymedia is different. Manu Chao knew that we had no intentions of asking him about his favorite film or whether blondes are more attractive than brunettes. So we spoke about the big issues like globalization, nature, the hope stolen from the new generation, about 1968 and about tomorrow. About playing with fire. Manu Chao talked about the world and his role in it.

Interview conducted in French by Gábor Kardos, pictures and video by Gergely Kishell.

English translation by www.budapestfunzine.hu


Download the video:
 http://indy.media.hu/video/manuchao.wmv


- First, thanks for the concert…
- It was a good atmosphere.

- I would like to ask what you think of the fight for world freedom, and whether this fight will be the last in the ecological sense? In other words, will the forces of nature take part in this fight and maybe help us to end globalization?
- Hm.

- Maybe you globalization has to close down businesses if so many forces of nature are forcing it.
- For sure, we are playing with fire.

- The situation is heating up.
- Yes, it’s getting hotter. The system is reaching its limit. This is clear. They often say we are doing damage to nature, and this is right. But nature is strong. Much stronger than the system. One day, nature will become enraged, give a strong blow and the system will collapse. One civilization will disappear. Nature will heal its wounds. This process could last up to a hundred thousand years. This is just a short moment in nature’s terms. It is much stronger than we are. When we harm nature we harm ourselves. It’s much stronger than we think. It could last a hundred or even two hundred thousand years for her to overcome this. This is nothing for her. But, for us this is an eternity. We will continue to play with fire until the day we enrage her, and as my friend Aldo says, nature will clean everything out.

- If “Next station is hope” then we can hope that it will be soon. What kind of timing can we expect? Has it already started?
- We have reached a stage where we don’t know. It can come anytime. At least, concerning me, I have reached a stage where I find it impossible to plan two or three years ahead. What’s going to become of the world in two or three years time? Who knows? Planning ahead has become a delicate issue. We are playing with fire so much, but the big question is when we will reach the point that this will all be irreversible. Maybe we are already over this point, or maybe not. I cannot judge it, but we are really playing with fire.

- Is there a link between this natural struggle and the fight for freedom… because it seems that what the workers, the proletariat, couldn’t reach within themselves could occur with the power of nature. In other words, it will put a stop to this global capitalist, or however you choose to call it, system.
- The system has gone crazy. It has been so for a long time. It’s sure that things have come to a pass. Concerning decision-makers, the ones who can make a change, in my opinion they don’t know where the steering wheel or the brake is. They have sunk into their own madness. Into the madness of the system, the capitalist system, which is descending into barbarity. Capitalism is showing its real face and base, that is barbarity.

- What we can see in wars.
- Yes, there will be more and more. Unbelievable stupidity. Old obsessions arise again and again, things I would have thought of as medieval past, for example, the religious crusades. We come back to things that I thought had past. What is for sure is that this is extremely disturbing.

- Shifting to a more positive subject, do you think that commitment music is getting stronger today? This is how I feel, but I may be wrong.
This is not only about music. Every professional and societal community has to become stronger because the problem arises on more than one level and concerns every group. It’s not only a question of music, this concerns musicians as well as taxi drivers, farmers, fishermen, students, everyone has to come to their senses.

- For sure you followed the movement of the French youth in the spring, that a generation stood up for its rights. More or less, this was unique in Europe up to now, but what do you think about the correlation? The generation has to face the fact that there is no future for it. None at all. So they are forced to stand up for themselves.
- Yes, what is disastrous for the youth is that their future, their hope, was taken away.

- This is without historical precedence.
- When we were teenagers, even if we made mistakes we had hope. But from the most recent generation, they took away something really important, hope.

- And compared to 1968?
- I was very small and I didn’t see ’68. My dad was there, but ’68 belongs to the generation before mine. It didn’t concern my life directly. But what is for sure is that those who were in their 20s in ’68 were full of hope. They honestly believed they could change the world, they could plan, and they could make a difference. Now, the state of the youth is much harder. This is why we would need more hope.

- Freedom has become a battle cry since ’68.
- What do you mean?

- It’s a marketing slogan and mainly in the American version, freedom has become a war buzzword.
- This is how hope gets damaged, every word becomes discredited and muddied. When we hear that somebody, as discredited as the US president talks to everyone about freedom and fights for democracy, this is extremely dangerous because who is going to believe in democracy if the flag barer is George Bush? As well as this being a lie, it also shows the end of some kind of democracy.

- And everything can start from the beginning.
- Of course, nature is capable of it and mankind is a part of nature. This is why I hope that mankind is capable of doing the same as nature.

- This is how we can interpret the gesture (at the end of the concert) of the microphone - heartbeat.
- As long as the heart beats, there is hope. This is the rule of life.

- Thank you. We would like to give something in return, a bottle of wine, because Hungary is also a wine country.
- White wine.

- We would like to give a wine from lake Balaton.
- Thank you.

- …from those who appreciate your commitment as well as your music.
- Thank you, from my dad’s side I’m from Galicia, and it’s also a white wine region. We know how to appreciate it.

- You know, we Hungarians are like a minority, like the Basques. No one else speaks our language.
- There are those that believe we share ancestral ties.

- It’s hard to say.
- My mother is Basque from Bilbao. The mystery of cultures, where we come from and where we are heading.

- Thanks again.
- I thank you.

- I hope we didn’t keep you too long.
- No, we had a good chat.

After the interview finished:

- We are not professionals.
- I’m not either.

- We just like...
- Thank you for the interview, for the talk.